Beginning on Sept. 3, the pilot program consists of riders tapping their Metro cards upon exiting the Downtown Santa Monica station turnstiles, the end of the line for the Expo train. Tapping out confirms of paid fare, rather than staff manually checking cards or phone applications individually.
Once implementing the pilot program in North Hollywood, Metro saw a massive 40% decrease in incidents on its Transit Watch app (including fights and drug use) during the initial period on the B Line. With a few weeks of results, decreases have been even greater on the Expo.
On Sept. 20, Metro reported to the Daily Press that in its first week of TAP-to-Exit enforcement, reported incidents involving harassment, physical fights, drug use and vandalism dropped around 45% on the entire Expo line. The program, the organization states, has benefits from Downtown Santa Monica all the way to Atlantic Station in East Los Angeles.
"While Transit Security Officers have always had a consistent end-of-line presence at both [North Hollywood and Downtown Santa Monica] stations prior to the TAP-to-Exit program, we are finding that this program places our uniformed personnel in a better position to improve overall safety and cleanliness," Metro Communications Manager Jose Ubaldo stated.
Metro has also been collecting more unpaid fares, stating that over 50,000 unpaid exits were corrected since TAP-to-Exit debuted in North Hollywood.
Though the first week was a success, the mass lowering of disturbances could be partially attributed to extra personnel from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office. Coming out in droves to take riders out of train cars at the station, a video from Santa Monica Closeup shows groups of LA County officers patrolling the Metro stop platform.
Still, there is evidence the program could have long-lasting positive impacts, as the summer months showed a 30% decrease from reported incidents on the B Line. Though a drop from 40% in the initial period, Metro states the "expected seasonality of increased issues when school is not in session" is still a victory. The organization added that reports of smoking, drugs and alcohol fell by 60% over the past two months on the B Line.
The new safety program comes as Metro ridership continues to climb back to levels before the COVID-19 pandemic. In August, total estimated rail ridership was 5,918,588; a jump of nearly 150,000 from August of 2023. The Expo line also saw a 10% jump from a year ago, welcoming 1,397,929 riders in August.
Now at two locations, Metro intends on serving more lines with TAP-to-Exit in the near future.
"The TAP-to-Exit data is showing that we are delivering a clear and safer ride in Santa Monica," Metro DEO of Customer Experience Stations Stephen Tu said. "This is consistent with what we saw at North Hollywood, where 9 in 10 surveyed riders agreed. We look forward to expanding this improvement to more stations over the next year."
thomas@smdp.com
